Malcolm Golby Haines (12 October 1936 – 13 January 2013)[1] was a British plasma physicist known for his research on Z-pinches.
[1] After Russian scientists led by Valentin Smirnov had achieved a breakthrough in plasma physics by using rod grids in Z-pinch arrangements, Haines optimized the grids and other experimental parameters and undertook theoretical simulations of the implosion processes.
They were tested on MAGPIE (Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments) at Imperial College.
[5] The method revolutionized the research of inertial fusion with Z-pinch arrangements (and their use as the strongest known X-ray sources) up to the construction of the Z-machine at Sandia National Laboratories under Tom Sanford.
In 2006, he and his colleagues proposed a model to explain the record temperatures of 2 to 3 billion kelvin generated in the Z machine - the eddies formed by the numerous instabilities of the intense magnetic field are slowed down in the dense plasma and give their energy to the ions.